Scholarly record

SOCIAL MEDIA IN HIGHER EDUCATION FROM STUDENTS PERSPECTIVE

Y. Aleksandrova, S. Parusheva

Abstract

Nowadays we are witnessing the growing proliferation of social media in almost every sphere of our lives – from economics, to politics, society and education. Undoubtedly, the new opportunities of various social media applications such as social networking sites, collaborative projects, blogs, wikis, content communities, forums, etc., have their impact on educational process for both teachers and students. The main goal of this research is to identify some notable trends, opportunities and limitations regarding the application of social media in higher education based on studying the way students use social media during the course of their education. The target groups of the research are students in University of Economics Varna enrolled in different bachelors and master programs. Data is collected with online survey specially designed for the purpose of this research. During the research process, we have formulated three main area of interest, namely using the social media in the process of learning, creation and distribution of education related content. The study examines the usage of and the attitude to various social media applications. Results show that the application of social media is largely initiated by students and not so much by teachers. Facebook groups are preferable social media for communication with colleagues and content sharing and distribution, while Wikis and Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are most used for content creation and additional learning. Some possible future research topics are given in the conclusion.

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